Building Blocks: The Architecture of Sound

Building Blocks: The Architecture of Sound

This discussion will investigate possibilities of sound in and as architectural environments, and pose questions about interventions that can manipulate one’s experience of a soundscape. Moderated by artist, educator and Experimental Sound Studio founding member and executive director, Lou Mallozzi, fellow panelists include artists and composers Olivia Block, Owen Clayton Condon and Walter Kitundu; and senior acoustic consultant at Arup’s SoundLab, Ryan Biziorek.

Lou Mallozzi is an artist, arts administrator and educator. As a founding member and executive director of Experimental Sound Studio (ESS), for nearly three decades he has facilitated the presentation of work by several hundred artists and ensembles. His own practice as an artist has received considerable attention, including performances, exhibitions and broadcasts in the United States, Canada and Europe, in addition to a variety of awards and residencies. Mallozzi teaches in the Sound Department of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Olivia Block is a composer and sound artist who creates original compositions for concerts, site-specific multi-speaker installations and live cinema. In addition to numerous performances worldwide, she has created sound installations for the Museum of Contemporary Art and Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago; the library at Wesleyan University; and the Echoes Through the Mountains exhibition at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. Her latest public installation, Sonambient Pavilion commissioned by Experimental Sound Studio, is a partner program of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

Owen Clayton Condon is a performer, composer and educator. He has performed with eighth blackbird, Signal Ensemble and Third Coast Percussion, and his compositions have been performed in over 30 countries around the globe. Condon has enjoyed multiple collaborations with the artists Luftwerk, including solarise: a sea of all colors now activating Garfield Park Conservatory as a partner program of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. He has a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Music degree from New England Conservatory.

Walter Kitundu is a sound artist, installation artist and inventor of original musical instruments— such as his Phonoharps, hybrids of turntables and stringed instruments—that navigate the boundary between live and recorded performance. He has worked with a wide range of collaborators, from Matmos and the Kronos Quartet, to a flock of pigeons, frigid ocean waves, wind, fire, escalators and balloons. His work has been exhibited and performed at numerous venues nationally and internationally. In 2008, Kitundu became a MacArthur Fellow.

Ryan Biziorek is Senior Acoustic Consultant with Arup, a global multi-disciplinary engineering firm. He contributes to the operation and development of the Arup SoundLab, a virtual reality room where clients, including many artists, can experience in 3-D the acoustics of existing or modelled spaces. Ryan utilizes his 10+ years of consulting experience in performing arts design, room acoustic modelling and audiovisual systems design to collaborate with artists, using innovative tools and techniques to evaluate options and elevate the resultant work.

This event will be held in the Chicago Cultural Center's Claudia Cassidy Theater, 2nd Floor North.

This program is curated by the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

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Chicago Architecture Biennial is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and is owned by Chicago Architecture Biennial, Inc. The Chicago Architecture Biennial opened in October 2015 and and has been curated, programmed and promoted by Chicago Architecture Biennial Inc. in collaboration with presenting partners the Graham Foundation and the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. The Chicago Architecture Biennial is in no way associated or affiliated with The Chicago Athenaeum of Galena, IL and their “Chicago Architecture Biennial.”